Obama in "can't lose" political chess match

[hfojvt]

25. because if the deal goes to $400,000

then you and I and Bill Gates will get a tax cut on our first $400,000 in income.

Except there is only one of us who makes even 1/3 of $400,000. Heck, I don't even make 1/10th of that much.

Then there is the matter of dividends. In the good old days before George W. Bush, dividends used to be taxed as ordinary income, meaning that if you were Mitt Romney, for example, you piad taxes on your $4.9 million in income from dividends at the top frigging rate. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=journals&uid=157743&page=2

If the Bush tax cuts expire, that would happen once again.

However, as I understand these deals, the most current proposal is to tax dividends at the same rate as capital gains, which are taxed at a lower rate than money that has to be worked for as CTJ explains here http://www.ctj.org/pdf/latestfiscalcliff.pdf

Second, there is the proposal - from Obama - to return the estate tax, NOT to where it was in 2000, but to where it was in 2009 - with a bigger exclusion and a lower rate. I am sure the middle class is very concerned about that since so many of us have million dollar estates.

Third, the other proposals that we do not hear about and that even I, tax geek that I am, do not fully understand - PEP, Pease, and the 28 cent limit on deductions.

Because almost nobody knows about those, they can be quietly killed (to benefit the rich who damn well know about them and have accountants and lobbyists to push for their repeal). So I could jump on a soapbox with my hair on fire screaming about the repeal of PEP and Pease and most people would not get upset, they would not pass go or collect $200, and neither would they run to call Congress right fucking now. Instead they would just say "what the fuck is he talking about?"

But they usually say that anyway because of my rambling writing style and heavy use of mathematics.

So I expect that Congress will quietly repeal PEP and Pease in this deal with a wink and a wave to their rich donors and with the rest of us useful idiots cheering on Obama's great victory.

That also may NOT happen, but you know what would guarantee that it did not happen? To NOT make or take a DEAL. Just let the motherfucking Bush tax cuts DIE already and then put a fucking stake through their heart so the evil spawn cannot rise from the dead.